Mesh newbie...help I'm lost

[Selina Winterwolf]

So I watched some tutorials...downloaded blender...uploaded my AV body shape to work on for designing clothes...all was going well and then thought great now to create a simple outfit and see how this works...and now I'm stuck...anyone point me in the right direction of how to actually create the clothing? Thank you
Selina

[chuctanunda]

Making mesh clothing requires a whole set of skills, I think. Like using 2D image manipulation programs like GIMP or Photoshop, and 3D, like Blender.  There are also quite a few useful techniques to be learned in the old school, ie prim manipulation way, like using flexiprims, making tiny prims, or torturing prims (ouch!) for accessory creations, and sculpt maps. 

For using Blender in SL, you will need the Primstar 2 Addon. To learn how it works, Gaia Clary, one of the creators of Primstar has a whole series of tutorials at blog.machinimatrix.org

She is also involved in developing Avastar, which I think is more closely related to making clothing and skins, than Blender. 

 Try the Soma School of Design. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Boudoir%20Isle/154/180/754 They have a whole new series of classes on clothing design. If you join their group, I think you will get notices of when live classes are. 

Finally, for some old school (pre mesh) clothing creation and building tutorials, check out Natalia Zelmanov's excellent blog. http://www.mermaiddiaries.com

Sadly, she seems to have moved on. She stopped posting in 2010,  and some of her tutorials are becoming outdated, but she has four years worth of tutorials up, and most are still excellent for getting started.  She is also very good at explaining how to do things. 

I think she still has a hair shop inworld. 

Good luck

[Masami Kuramoto]

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chuctanunda wrote:

For using Blender in SL, you will need the Primstar 2 Addon.

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No.

[Nalates Urriah]

Massmi is right. You do not have to have Primstar. Gaia Clary makes Avastar, which can make your tasks much easier. But it is not a 'have to' type of thing.

See: Second Life specific mesh clothes tutorials for how to work around having to buy additional software. 

 

[chuctanunda]

Thanks for the clarification, Nalates

I  meant to say that Avastar seems to be more related to making clothing than Primstar. And probably "have to" (buy one of them) is too strong a word. But I have not so far found a way to export something from Blender, and import it to Second life without some intermediary, like Primstar or Avastar. I see in your clothing tutorial that you do export a collada file from Blender and import it to SL. But you are using an Avatar model.

So what if you are not making clothing? What if you want to make a tree, by extruding the branches, instead of making it in pieces that you bake into a sculpt map, as you do with Primstar. (At least that is as far as I have gotten.) Could you make a whole tree and export it as a collada to import to SL? I have actually tried this, but mostly I end up with a lump. So I set that idea aside and have focused on learning Primstar to make the shapes I need, that are not too distorted and can take a texture without it looks stretched. The problem with this approach, is that to make a nice, gnarly tree, you have to use a lot of sculpted prims. Is there a better way?

[Selina Winterwolf]

Thanks everyone I'm not sure anythings any clearer lol but I did find some great tutorials I guess I just need to learn blender more I'm having issues with shrinkwrap now...one thing after another huh lol

Thanks for your replies

[Pamela Galli]

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chuctanunda wrote:

Thanks for the clarification,

Nalates

I  meant to say that Avastar seems to be more related to making clothing than

Primstar.

And probably "have to" (buy one of them) is too strong a word. But I have not so far found a way to export something from Blender, and import it to Second life without some intermediary, like Primstar or Avastar. I see in your clothing tutorial that you do export a collada file from Blender and import it to SL. But you are using an Avatar model.

So what if you are not making clothing? What if you want to make a tree, by extruding the branches, instead of making it in pieces that you bake into a sculpt map, as you do with Primstar. (At least that is as far as I have gotten.) Could you make a whole tree and export it as a collada to import to SL? I have actually tried this, but mostly I end up with a lump. So I set that idea aside and have focused on learning Primstar to make the shapes I need, that are not too distorted and can take a texture without it looks stretched. The problem with this approach, is that to make a nice, gnarly tree, you have to use a lot of sculpted prims. Is there a better way?

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The question was about making mesh, not sculpts. 

[Aquila Kytori]

Hi

I just tried Uploading a "gnarly tree" onto the beta grid to see if the lindens had decided not to allow mishapen mesh trees to be used in SL and as you can see from the pic it doesn't seem to be a problem lol

If you are using a recent version of Blender  then you shouldn't have any problems uploading static mesh  . I would suggest you try uploading your mesh again , or even just try uploading a mesh cube just to check that everything is working as it should be .

[chuctanunda]

Thank you for your suggestion, Aquila. Now I see that I have been going about it the wrong way. I will try your suggestion.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Is Avastar the best way to get my chosen shape into Blender?